


Shadows and Night Lights

by Ponderosa_Puzzle



Category: Fruits Basket, Fruits Basket (Anime 2001), Fruits Basket (Anime 2019)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Past Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-13 19:00:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28783095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ponderosa_Puzzle/pseuds/Ponderosa_Puzzle
Summary: Yuki is slowly adjusting to living with Shigure. It’s not a smooth process, but he’s getting there. (Follow up to Sunlight). Mostly Shigure’s POV, with a little of Yuki’s POV.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 26





	Shadows and Night Lights

**Author's Note:**

> This is a follow up to my previous fanfic Sunlight. But if you haven’t read that one, you should still be able to follow this. My fics are basically just piecing together Yuki’s past because I want to read the parts that aren’t given. This one isn’t exactly written chronologically. It kind of takes one step back, then another, and then flings back forward (the time span is only over about a week or so though). Hopefully it’s not too confusing; it just felt more authentic to write it that way. 
> 
> Fruits Basket and all its characters belong to Natsuki Takaya.

The shadows stood still in the silence. Shigure stepped off the last stair, turned, and sighed. Over the past couple weeks, things had seemed to gradually be getting better. Yuki kept to himself for the most part but hadn’t been locking himself in his room as much. There had been a shift after last weekend though, and Shigure suddenly found himself with the exact opposite problem. 

Yuki had attempted to make rice a few days ago while Shigure was out. He had come back to a stove covered in residue from boiled over water, a blackened pot in the sink, and a fan blowing the faint charred smell toward the window. 

Yuki was sitting at the _kotatsu_ in the adjoining room eating some type of cracker. He didn’t acknowledge Shigure’s entrance or the mess in the kitchen. 

Shigure raised an eyebrow. “Did you add too much water or not enough water? How long did you have it on the stove?” Shigure looked at the now useless pot, “Why didn’t you use the rice cooker?” 

“There’s a rice cooker?”

“Somewhere,” Shigure scratched his head looking around the kitchen and not commenting on the response he hadn’t expected. 

Yuki didn’t say anything else. Shigure considered him before adding, “Maybe we should stick to take out.” He pulled a container out of the bag he was carrying and placed it on the counter before walking into his study. 

When he had come out later to get ready for bed, Yuki was asleep on the cushions under the _kotatsu_ , a book flipped open beside him. The fan had been turned off, but the kitchen light was still on. The pot was still in the sink. He dumped out the water and threw it in with the non-burnable trash. He had no desire to try salvaging it. Shigure considered waking the boy up and sending him upstairs but decided not to bother. He’d found him there the next morning in the exact same position and spent ten minutes trying to get him up to get ready for school. 

Yuki had slid back in without a greeting at the end of the school day and set himself up at the table again. Shigure wondered if he had any friends at school and considered it unlikely. Yuki had never mentioned anything about his classes, but he’d seemed adamant and determined when Shigure had thrown out the option of a non-Sohma public high school. Although, that seemed to be part of the current problem, whatever the current problem was. 

Yuki had gone to ask for permission last weekend and walked out of his parents’ house with his head bowed and silent. Shigure had waited outside on a bench to let the boy address his parents on his own. He’d escorted him since Akito had requested they visit while at the estate. Yuki had spent almost the entirety of the next day outside doing who knows what in this cold weather. He didn’t come back in until it started getting dark. Shigure wasn’t positive, but he was pretty sure Yuki hadn’t uttered a word after returning from the main compound. That was, until the rice cooker question. He remembered Hatori mentioning the boy had been selectively mute in the past. 

When his mother had called to discuss his high school options the next day, Yuki refused to even touch the phone. He’d shaken his head vigorously and backed away. Shigure was in the process of signing him up for the upcoming entrance exam for Kaibara High School, despite his mother making it clear she very much disapproved. If it was the only exam he showed up for, it was the only place he could go. His mother certainly would rather have him at any high school than no high school at all. 

Yuki had gone back to his room like normal that night but about an hour later Shigure had heard steps on the stairs and seen light creep in under his door. Yuki was at the kotatsu again in the morning. Since then, Shigure had woken up to find him on the porch outside huddled in his jacket, his comforter, and the kotatsu blanket, in the kitchen leaning against the cabinets, and on the balcony with the inside hall light on. 

This time he found Yuki curled up on the floor in the hallway outside his room. The rat’s erratic sleep routine over the last few days had sent Shigure upstairs to check on the kid. He didn’t want Hatori yelling at him for letting Yuki sleep outside if he got sick. He paused in his spot at the top of the stairs. The bathroom door was cracked open and light streamed out, illuminating a rectangular pattern along the floor and wall. Yuki’s pillow aligned with the edge of the door frame, plunging his form into shadow but keeping him within arm’s reach of the light. This was actually rather helpful. It made at least one thing clear. Shigure’s eyebrows raised. He contemplated leaving his young charge there but then imagined the hard wood probably wouldn’t be very forgiving. 

“Yuki,” he tried. No response came, so he tried again. When it seemed as though his name wouldn’t rouse the boy, Shigure reached out to nudge his shoulder. That didn’t seem to work either, so he shook harder, adding his name again. A sudden jolt sent the rat reeling away, and his head hit the wall. Shigure withdrew his hand and looked at Yuki with a neutral expression. The kid looked stricken, hand to the back of his head and eyes wide. Shigure grinned, “You make it a habit to sleep in odd places?” 

Yuki flushed, gathering his blanket and pillow to his chest and standing. “No, I just… fell asleep…” he trailed off, eyes wandering with no logical explanation other than the truth. 

“You want me to buy you a night light?” Shigure quipped. 

“I’m not a child.” 

“I didn’t say you were.” 

Yuki hesitated, eyes on his feet. Fists tightened, he muttered, “No.” Indignant, he turned, heading back into his room and shutting the door on Shigure. Silence followed. 

Shigure looked to the ceiling, waiting a moment before turning off the bathroom light and making his way back to the stairs. Halfway down he heard the hinges of a door and sighed again. The kid wasn’t going to make it easy. In the morning, Shigure found the upstairs bathroom light on again and Yuki’s bedroom door wide open. At least he was sleeping in his bed. Shigure hummed. It was time to go to the store again. 

\---------------------------

Yuki found a reading lamp on his desk when he got home from school. There was a note taped to the box. “You don’t have to keep the door shut!” was scribbled diagonally across a piece of paper in the shape of a cartoon dog. Yuki felt his face heat up, blinking to hold back whatever emotion had suddenly slammed into him. His chest and head ached. Had it been that obvious? 

Yuki opened the box and clamped the lamp to the side of his desk, shoving some papers aside to make room. He ducked, pushing his small trash can out of the way to reach the plug and picking up some crumpled papers from the floor that he hadn’t realized had missed their target. He clicked the switch, and the lamp head began to glow. 

He stared at it, chest still aching. He hoped he wasn’t about to have an asthma attack. He really didn’t want to deal with that at the moment. Maybe he shouldn’t have slept outside twice this week. But after his visit to the main estate, the dark walls of his room made his blood run cold. His heart would drop, and his stomach would lurch into his throat. It was sudden and unrelenting, and he had needed it to stop. He’d grabbed whatever blankets he could find and stumbled out into the open air. He was lucky he hadn’t caught a cold. Maybe he was in over his head. He didn’t know what he was doing. He didn’t know how to be normal. He wasn’t strong. Why was he pushing so desperately to get away from the hold of the Sohmas? All he was doing was making a mess for everyone. They already detested him. He was just reinforcing that hatred. 

He blinked again, eyes stinging from the light or maybe something else. They drifted back to the note. The public high school entrance exam was in a few weeks. Shigure had told him when he’d walked in the door that he’d signed Yuki up for it, to not go to any of the exams for the private schools if he was set on going to Kaibara. Yuki had simply nodded in understanding and come upstairs. He was making a mess; he was a mess, but for the first time he suddenly didn’t feel like he was sinking into an abyss. His feet felt grounded, if somewhat unstable. He wasn’t sure what that meant, but he liked the feeling, and he wasn’t going to let it go.

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, so I had no intention of writing a follow up story to Sunlight. I’ve actually been meaning to write a follow up to Sneaking In, but I was in a weird mood back in October (…I wasn’t sure if I wanted to post this) and somehow this happened. I wrote Sunlight a year and a half ago and I think I placed it during summer break instead of winter break (perhaps because it was summer when I wrote it). I hadn’t completely pieced together the timeline of when Yuki moved out, but I’m fairly certain now it was the winter instead of summer before he started high school. Likely sometime in January. So, I shifted the season for this one because I think it’s more accurate. (Can you guess what Yuki was doing outside all day?) 
> 
> I have started writing a follow up to Sneaking In, but it’s kind of just a bunch of fragmented pieces, and I’m trying to figure out how I want to piece it together. If I manage to finish it, it will still be a while before I post it. I do want to finish it, but things are going to get busy again, and I have to be in the right mood to actually write anything – which doesn’t happen too often.


End file.
